Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Kickstarter campaigns...so that's where my money goes.

Kickstarter happenings... so that's where my money goes

There are plenty of new gaming opportunities available if you are looking to get into new things. There is a great new campaign by Mantic Games (Halethorpe, MD). This table top game is a follow-up to their previously successful Kings of War 2012 campaign. They provide reasonably prices games that look great and are a lot of fun. You may know them from Kings of War, Warpath, Dreadball, Mars Attacks or others.

This is a dungeon based adventure board game for 2-5 players. The game has some really fantastic looking resin miniatures that would be good for any number of settings for RPGs or skirmish games. The pieces come unpainted, so there is a little commitment, but that also gives you the most flexibility. Looks like the main support level is $100, but that gets you the box game, advance rules, 4 heroes, 3 villians, skeletons, zombies, ghosts, armoured zombies, and dwarf revenants. There are already a bunch of stretch goals which mean additional miniatures (some Kickstarter exclusives) and the zombie rules. More to come... they were funded within 4 minutes and are fast approaching the $250,000 mark as I write this.

Infamy miniatures (Nottingham, UK) is another start-up and building in a location where a number of other start-ups are launching. Some of these also have some cross-overs. It just so happens that I have a personal connection to this one as my friend Dave Taylor has contributed some of the editing to this.

This is a skirmish game set in a steampunk Victorian London. It has lots of your favorite characters (Sherlock and Watson, Jekyll and Hyde, Dodger, Tesla) all with new takes and some interesting new additions which should make game play rather interesting. It uses a combination of playing cards and opposing dice checks for mechanics and is showing some rather amazing 32mm scale resin miniatures. While the prices are a bit higher than Mantic, there are a number of possible entry points into the game. There is also an amazing amount of flexibility in what you miniatures you choose to receive. If you are into table top and steampunk, well get your wallets ready. This is the game for you. The pieces really look amazing and the game play sounds intriguing. This is in the final week, so you better get moving quickly.

I've been fascinated with giant robots for a long time, I mean since the early 70's when I was watching Tranzor Z and building robots out of lions (that's Voltron for the kids). Robotech coming along in the 80s only added to the intrigue. When Palladium Books put out the RPG, we were there playing irregularly, but always having fun. So of course when the boys at Palladium Books connected with Soda Pop Miniatures and Cipher Studios, to create this RPG Kickstarter, I was there. Here is the table top skirmish version and I can't wait. There have been some delays and some production issues, but they are nearing GenCon and have full sets. Distribution on this one should be coming very soon.

The miniature assembly looks kind of complex, but we are assured that is to make them look even more amazing. I am in at the Battle Cry ($140) level which gets me everything in the picture on the left there. I also added the SDF-1 because SDF-1! I will have more updates on this and game play and everything else as soon as I have it assembled, painted, and tested...so like 2090 when it is revised to be completely in a virtual world on Occulus. I know I move at glacial speed.

It's too late for you to get into this Reaper Miniatures (Denton, Tx) Kickstarter campaign, but based on the success of this one and the previous Bones Kickstarter; there may yet be a third. This is the transfer of many of Reaper's metal miniatures to a new "Bones" material. I've had the pleasure of painting some of these and doing some modifications of a couple. The material is pretty easy to use, though very different than resin or metal figs. The paint lays on it well and it is incredibly easy to modify if you are into custom mods to figs or kit bashing.

This one should be shipping to me at the end of the year and you can see the entire Core Set in this image to the right. So that is a personal Christmas present. Looks like my $100 pledge will land me somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 miniatures. A pretty good ROI and all of these are great for table top RPGs and many skirmish games for many settings. Lots of stuff and a great mechanisms to get lots to paint.

That's all for now, future updates on current project coming soon...including a big shipment of scenery stuff from Cicada Crafts, some stuff picked up at Adepticon, some of Victoria Lamb's new products... too much to do!

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